Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone out there had a wonderful holiday season. It's been busy here as usual and now the time has come to look forward to see what the new year holds for us.

First off, nothing new with the kids. They never stop going, going, going. At the moment all are healthy (knock on wood) and aside from the typical teenage angst, all are relatively happy. :)

Potty training continues to be a struggle but I must take the blame for that as I am not consistent. I definitely need to buckle down and help my child with this as she will be 3 on the 23rd. Geez! Where'd the time go?

Last month hubby and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary! It's been quite a journey --marriage that is, over the years but I am happy to say it's all been worth it. My guy is amazing and we've both grown so much over the years. Here's to many happy years ahead.

Business is good. I'm getting ready for tax season and organizing, tweeking and revamping pretty much everything. The biggest noticeable change is in the appearance of my etsy shop. I recently joined the Busy Moms of Etsy Team, http://busymomsofetsy.ning.com , and have met some wonderful ladies and received some much appreciated advice. In particular, advice on improving my photos. Boy do they need it. The past few weeks I've been learning more about photography and my camera and have been working on the quality of my pics. Every day I try to add new photos to my products on the etsy site. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at the lighting and detail in the new pics. http://www.heathermgannon.etsy.com/

I have a few custom orders in the works as well and will post those pics as they are completed. But in the meantime here's some new bling:

Have a healthy, happy and productive 2010! ~Heather

Trying to find balance

I crave balance in my life. I am a Libra, you know, the scales? When I feel like life is imbalanced I get a little wackier than normal :) Lately, the scales don't come to mind but for some reason I have this image of a seesaw that can never really stay horizontal for long. It's not natural for a seesaw to be like that. A seesaw is more about the extremes-high or low and that's what makes seesaws so much fun, if you go with the flow of the ride and enjoy it. Hence my problem. I'm always fighting the natural ebb and flow of the seesaw. I get too much weight on my end so I put it off to the other end. That's where hubby sits. He balances the load and he does it well and I know if he weren't on the other end I'd be on my keister on the ground. Are ya all following me? Problem is, when he's all the way down there at the other end, we rarely get to meet up and that's what it's been like lately. He is wonderful with the kids, the food shopping, cooking meals and paying the bills and ladies, you can't have him! He's so great with the kids that I find I'm seeing less of him and the kids as I throw myself into building my little business. I miss my family. It is the price I pay and so I've decided that while I do not wish to sacrifice my entrepreneurial endeavours, I need to change something so that I can make the time to see them. After much thought and consideration, it finally dawned on me that hello...I am the boss, I can call my own shots, right? So, the shots have been called.

I am discontinuing my custom design services. All current projects will be filled, however, going forward, I will not be accepting new custom orders. Custom design can be extremely rewarding (as well as frustrating at times) and time consuming. In the current market it's not as profitable as one would think. I will still be making my unique, funky, wonderful (okay, I'm biased) designs and selling them through in home jewelry parties and craft fairs. I am also in the process of listing pieces for sale on my new etsy on-line shop, http://www.heathermgannon.etsy.com/. The shop is up but it's looking very sparse at the moment so feel free to stop by but please be patient as I figure out all the etsy ins and outs and get my products listed. For now, I plan to put all the newest items in the etsy shop. I will be removing items from the original http://www.hillcrestjewelrydesign.com/ website as they sell so you may want to view both sites. You may purchase directly from the etsy shop, however please send me an e-mail at hillcrestjewelrydesign@comcast.net if you would like to purchase an item from the hillcrest site as the hillcrest site does not have a shopping cart on it. Confused? I hope not. Let me explain.

I set up the original website with the intention of adding a shopping cart at a later date. I found out after the fact that the options I chose with the website necessitated certain requirements for a shopping cart that would have been costly and time-consuming. Live and learn. The website serves as a sort of on-line catalogue though so I kept it going. When I'm having a show, my customers can preview stock prior to party time. I do not have a printed catalogue as my inventory is constantly changing. So that's that, in a nutshell.

Now, getting back to the basics. The jewelry making continues as I prepare for an in home jewelry party this weekend. Potty training is in full swing: potty, pull ups and pee accidents OH MY! We missed dance class this week as someone forgot her dance bag and mommy didn't remind her prior to leaving the house, so more than half way there, we turned around to get the bag only to realize that we'd be missing more than half of the class by the time we got there. The amazing goalie got to play the field for the school's varsity team yesterday and managed to score a goal from the center fullback position!!! She was quickly pulled off the field as her coaches didn't want her to push up the field that far. Big picture people--she scored! She also had an assist from the same position. For those of you not in the soccer mindset, the full back position is way back on the field far away from scoring position. In addition, more soccer, volleyball, a yearly check up at the pediatrician, a school field trip and Zoe's birthday party mark the calendar this week. Did I forget something?? Probably.

Enjoy the pics, enjoy the wonderful weather we're suppose to get this weekend and happy belated earth day! ~Heather

New Earrings and Necklace

I managed to get more earrings made yesterday but the kitchen floor still looks like a bomb exploded and landed on it. I've marked oodles of earrings down to make room for the new spring/summer ear bling. Anything that I am tired of looking at got marked down. Unfortunately I don't have time to make the price changes on the website so if any of the earrings on the website float your boat just shoot me an e-mail at hillcrestjewelrydesign@comcast.net to inquire about the price. I still have a lot of empty space on my earring racks so more newbies are yet to come.

I just had to share this necklace with you. I found this carved bone pendant and thought ocean jasper, with all it's color variations, would look great with it. The necklace is adjustable and measures 16-19". I've hand turned each sterling silver link. HJD1353 $43.00

These dainty rhodonite earrings are wrapped in sterling silver and measure approximately 1" from the top of the ear wire to the bottom of the wrapped stone. The stone is a mauvish pink. HJD1347 $10

I found a mix of wood beads at a great price and couldn't pass them up. The white beads in these earrings are actually wooden and very lightweight. A tiny Chinese turquoise bead dangles from the bottom. Sterling silver accents and components. HJD1354 $12 approx. 2" long

It's hard to see in the photo but the teardrop shaped Unakite stone has a mottled dark and light green w/ a peachy pink color to it. The cube hanging above is pink lepidolite and picks up on the pink in the unakite. These earrings hang approx. 1 3/4" from the top of the ear wire to the bottom of the teardrop. HJD1355 $14

I've dressed up a buri nut in these earrings. You'd never know it but the red bead is actually a nut that has been dyed. I've combined sterling silver accents with vintage crystals to make these earrings sparkle and shine. Measuring approx. 1 1/2" long. HJD1356 $16

Again with the wooden beads. I love the casual look of these earrings. At approx. 2 1/4" long, the wooden beads make these earrings very lightweight and comfortable to wear. A green glass lentil bead dangles below the wooden beads. All sterling silver. HJD1357 $14

My daughter shrieked when I showed her these. Okay, she's 13 so does that make these earrings teeny bopperish? I don't think so. They are fun though!! The sterling silver chain dresses the wood up a bit. Hanging at 3" long, the wood circles keep them light. HJD1358 $21

I am currently updating the website so you'll be able to see these on there in a bit--assuming of course that I'm not interrupted in the meantime--ha ha! I can hear 004 running amuck upstairs. God only knows what I'll find when I get up there.

Have a good one! ~Heather

New Bling, Craft Fair Wrap Up & To-Do List Additions

I'm lying in bed w/ my laptop listening to the snoring princess beside me. Sleeping beauty is beside her. I'm a night owl by nature but my little ones won't settle down to sleep unless I'm lying in bed with them. Do you know how much I could be getting done right about now?? I've already closed up shop so there's no point in going downstairs now though. So here I am, wide awake and finding the need to be productive in one form or another which led me to updating my website w/ new bling pics. I'll save you the trip to the website by publishing the latest HJD creations here:

Last weekend I was set up at the local craft fair. Saturday was a nice day so there was a larger crowd than Sunday, what with the damp rainy chilly weather. I really wasn't expecting any crowd at all on Sunday but much to my surprise the die hard craft connoisseurs were out and about, purses slung across the chest, donning rain gear and pulling carts along to wheel around all their bargains. I really do enjoy working that craft fair, partially because I'm indoors now(thank you Woody!!), and partially because my local loyal customers know where to find me and come to visit and shop. As many of you know, I long for the day when I can afford to open my own little piece of retail heaven so for me this craft show is a tiny sliver of what's to come. Sales were pretty decent considering the current economic situation. I did better than the Christmas show but we had awful weather that weekend. And I made some new friends, both in fellow vendors and new customers as well.

This evening I spent some time with a bride to be and her daughter, my tastefully simple rep/friend. Let me just tell you, her dress is amazing! I have never seen a wedding gown like this one. She didn't want a traditional gown as this is her 2nd marriage. It's off white with a sweetheart neckline, sleeveless, and a fairly straight, maybe A line drop to the floor. There's beautiful floral embroidery on the bodice, along the hem and train, in ecru, rose, lavender and sage. I can't wait to get the pics on here for you to see but we'll have to wait until June for that. Anyway, I'm making custom earrings and matching bracelet for the bride. I'll keep you posted.


My to-do list for this week is never ending as items from last week's to-do list spilled over to this week. I still have yet to make 2 swirly rings and a hand forged sterling link bracelet. Adding a matching anklet to that order, as well as another swirly ring but this one will be silver and gold--should be a gorgeous combination. I finished the custom mother's bracelet from last week. I did get some earrings made last week but marked down several earrings that I've been looking at too long during the craft show so I need to make oodles more. I'm still working on the other bridesmaids necklaces. I had to reconfigure the connections as I wasn't happy with how the crystals were hanging. It was a logistics issue but I think I have a solution. I need to find the supplies for the new bride-to-be's jewelry and price it. I'll need to order bags soon and I think I'm going to go w/ a "greener" option this time. Last but not least, more angle pins.

As usual we have the normal multitude of kids' activities. Volleyball practices and games, soccer, soccer and more soccer, gymnastics and an eye appointment. Somewhere in there my kitchen floor needs a hose down. Any volunteers?

Have a great night if you're up late like me, if not, happy morning! ~Heather

New Bling Update

As usual, I felt I didn't have enough made for the craft fair this weekend. I really do have an abundance but I just had to make a few more things. Plus, I received new supplies yesterday that I couldn't wait to get my hands on. Here's the result:

The pictures don't really do them justice. All the more reason to see them in person! Hopefully the weather will be nice and we'll have lots and lots of shoppers. Let's help stimulate the economy people!!!

Well I'm tuckered out and I have an early morning so I'm off to bed. Have a great weekend! ~Heather